


Uncertain Future

by Nebulad



Series: Vesegara [1]
Category: Mass Effect: Andromeda
Genre: "Trail Of Hope" spoilers, F/M, Fluff, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-11
Updated: 2017-04-11
Packaged: 2018-10-17 13:27:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,459
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10594947
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nebulad/pseuds/Nebulad
Summary: Amani Ryder made himlong. He didn’t know what for— something he would certainly never see, something light years away and six hundred years gone— but it electrified him. She might have told him she was born like a star, emerging from a molecular cloud in interstellar space, and he wouldn’t have doubted her for a moment.





	

Moshae Sjefa was asleep, and so Jaal didn’t feel bad in turning his attention to Amani. She was perched on the desk he worked off of in lieu of the one in his room, watching him do maintenance on his gun. The space was smaller— and more yet, making room for her— but he was finding it less obnoxious than he thought he would. If she were awake, the Moshae would laugh; certainly he was transparent to her.

Humans were… different, as far as aliens went. All the Milky Way races were, but he could pick out something familiar in the others: Vetra and Drack’s legs were similarly shaped, Lexi and Peebee’s heads were flexible flesh and cartilage, Kallo’s chest was concave, and a variety of other minute details. _Humans_ were entirely unique, and he found it more interesting than Evfra would strictly approve of. He was _so_ interested, as a matter of fact, that he was certain that wherever he was, Akksul was gnashing his teeth at the very idea.

Amani was… singular, perhaps was the word he would use. She had brown skin that made him think of the fertile soil of Aya— perhaps what he’d missed the most while stationed on Voeld. Dark freckles made constellations across her face (she’d observed the same about the white speckles on his head) and her hair was styled into several braids tight against her skull, pulled back into a bun at the nape of her neck. His overall opinion of humans, of course, was that they looked like creatures from a fairy tale: beings made from the very jungles and fields themselves, breathed into life by some sort of magic that the Angara had lost centuries ago.

Amani Ryder made him _long._ He didn’t know what for— something he would certainly never see, something light years away and six hundred years gone— but it electrified him. She might have told him she was born like a star, emerging from a molecular cloud in interstellar space, and he wouldn’t have doubted her for a moment.

They were on their way to Aya, to return the Moshae to her proper place and see the Vault. Jaal didn’t enjoy lingering on the memory of… _stars,_ it made bile rise up in this throat still. Learning what the Kett had been doing to his people had been a blow that was near physical in the pain of it, and needless to say it had sucked all the triumph out of being the first to escape a Kett facility— and with the Moshae, no less. What was meant to be a shining victory, and a leap forward in their relations with the new aliens had been tempered with heartache. So many had to be told what had more than likely happened to their friends and family…

He physically shrugged off the memory, and Amani looked up from her datapad. Automatically she reached out to touch his shoulder— and jerked back sharply with a hiss. “Ryder?”

“Electromagnetic field,” she said, shaking out her hand. “Not your fault, I just… forgot.” It wasn’t a problem with Angara, but humans seemed very sensitive to it. If he was in a particular mood and walked past Cora, her hair would raise, while Liam tended to get especially jumpy and restless. Suvi and Amani seemed particularly susceptible to static shock, to varying degrees. He tried to keep calm around them, but it would seem _Angaran_ calm and _human_ calm were two very different states of being. “You looked upset, for a second.”

“Only brooding, Ryder. We will return victorious, but the price we paid for victory…” He took a breath, willing himself not to become angry again. Anger affected her worse than sadness— she could comfort him while he wept without ever even noting the static, but he had long since progressed in his mourning. The Exalted could not be cured, and indeed harboured no _desire_ to be; the time he wasted wallowing in grief was time that could be used to save others from their fate.

“They’ll know the truth,” she offered quietly. It felt as if she’d given the response thought, despite the immediacy of her reply. “It isn’t a happy truth, but it’s an important one.” She was so _certain,_ but he could still sense that it was raw in her too. Pain was there, even if she stubbornly kept it contained— she deferred to his grief, even if he repeatedly told her that it was unnecessary. Angarans did not place hierarchy on pain, and indeed to mourn together was a form of catharsis.

He opened his mouth to reply, unsure of what exactly he meant to say. It was some mixture of how he adored her thoughtfulness, even as she attempted to pretend at being neutral, and agreement with her statement; however, SAM interrupted them. “Pathfinder, we will arrive on Aya momentarily. Perhaps you should wake the Moshae, to allow her time to gather her thoughts.”

“Thank-you, SAM.” Amani hopped off of his table and to no one’s surprise, Jaal immediately lost interest in whatever he’d been toying with before. Instead, his eyes followed her across the room to Sjefa’s side where she confidently and _gently_ nudged her into wakefulness. “I’m sorry to bother you, Moshae, but SAM says we’re landing soon and suggested that you might want to prepare yourself.”

She blinked away the sleep, her eyes scanning the room until she found Jaal. Relieved— and how could he blame her, after her time in that _place,_ alone— she nodded. “I thank you, Pathfinder.”

Ryder nodded her head deeply, then shot Jaal a smile. “I’ll leave the two of you to it, then.” Words stuck in his throat as the reality of their situation hit him. Whatever the circumstances, they would return to Aya with the Moshae. She was safe along with a staggering number of Angara who had been slated for Exaltation and soon, everyone else would know that— and know that it was thanks to Amani that they were saved.

He stood and she waited for him across the room. There were several gestures he might have made, the least of which would have brought her head against his own as if he could make her _absorb_ this overwhelming gratefulness that he couldn’t bring out in words. Any gesture he chose would perhaps alarm her, so he settled on a hug. Humans had hugs— Liam had told him so. He had to lift her a little, so she wasn’t smothered against his chest, but she laughed which he took to mean that he hadn’t done anything particularly strange. “You cannot know what you’ve done for us,” he told her.

“We did it together,” she returned firmly. He put her down, still amazed at how such a fragile species had lasted long enough to develop the technology to travel between galaxies. Even those aliens with more body fat, muscle, or sheer size than others still seemed terribly breakable. “You know,” she offered quietly, casting a quick glance at Moshae Sjefa as she stood and stretched. “The last time I was on Aya I didn’t get a chance to look around. Could I get a tour before we leave?”

His heart jumped into his throat. “Of course.” And then— “You… you do mean from me, right?”

It made her laugh, although he’d been serious. “Who else?” She gave his arm an absent pat, then nodded at the Moshae before disappearing back into the ship. Jaal didn’t even realise that he was leaning against the doorframe just watching her leave until Sjefa approached him.

“You must have faith in these aliens,” she said sagely.

“I do.” How could he elaborate? Besides, the Moshae had to be the last person he had to justify himself to— Amani had saved her from hell.

“I’m glad, although I wonder what Evfra will think.” She smiled knowingly and Jaal tried not to look as embarrassed as he felt. Evfra would know immediately why he demanded to stay aboard Amani’s ship— certainly in the hopes that this human and her AI could give the Resistance the edge it needed to finally seek out the head of the Kett and _destroy_ him; but it also gave him an opportunity to stay on Ryder’s team and watch her in action: her precision with a shotgun of all things, and the deftness with which she used her _firaan._ He wanted to watch her, to learn from and teach and _experience_ this alien in the way that his ancestors had hoped to experience the Kett.

Humans weren’t _that_ strange after all. Anatomically different, certainly, but with every passing day Jaal grew firmer in his belief that he was very much all right with that.

**Author's Note:**

> [My writing blog is here](http://nebulaad.tumblr.com) and genuinely this was a week long effort. I slogged through this. I can't write for Jaal and I have many Thoughts about why I'm finding it so difficult but I thought it might be good for me to just put something up.


End file.
